Conventionally, a photographer photographs pictures (images) by means of a camera. In this way he captures image information and stores the image information on a suitable storing medium, e.g. on a film in conventional cameras or on a digital memory device (e.g. floppy disk) in digital cameras. The photographer then brings the storage medium (e.g. film) to a photo shop (peripheral organisation) At a photo shop the storing mediums (e g. films in film cartridges, electronic memory units of digital cameras, etc.) of several customers are collected and processing information are added concerning the particular processing wishes of the customers (e.g. the for of the photographic prints, type of photographic paper, number of prints per picture (image), adding of a CD with digitalised pictures etc.) Furthermore, the name of the customer is noted and usually an individual order number is assigned to a so-called order or customer order which comprises, for example, a work envelope with an inserted film cartridge and the working instructions or processing information. Moreover, the photo shop may add particular requests to the processing information, e.g. the request to add one or more particular promotions to the work envelope at the photographic laboratory. In this way, a plurality of “customer orders” are collected at end of the photo shops. A plurality of photo shops exist, each of which collect a plurality of customer orders. Each photo shop forwards the customer orders to a photographic laboratory (centralised organisation). At this photographic laboratory, each order is processed by processing the customer order (e.g. film) of tile order according to the processing information (e,g. notes, bar codes, etc.) of the order. For instance, in the prior art (see EP 0 952 487, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference), a photographic laboratory executes the following processes on a customer order:                receiving the customer order comprising e g. the work envelope of the photo shop and the film cartridge within the work envelope, and processing information, said order including e g. notes which describe the processes to he performed with the film negatives of the customer order, transport arid customer address etc.;        removing the film cartridge from the work envelope;        pulling the exposed film out of its enclosure in the cartridge;        marking the work envelope and the exposed film by a suitable work code (e.g. bar code or the like);        joining together the films of different customer order's thus marked to provide a film negative batch;        developing the batch of films which have been joined together, thus obtaining hatch of negatives, wherein different portions of said batch belong to different customer orders and thus to different processing information;        printing the successive photographs disposed in the batch on a web of photo graphic paper, different portions of said hatch belonging to different customer orders;        distinguishing between the prints of each customer order by applying a work code (e.g. bar code) to the prints, which refers to the corresponding negatives;        cutting the negatives of each customer order into film sections, those film sections including a number of images, according to the number of photographs deter mined in the processing information belonging to the same customer order;        cutting the prints of each customer order, one by one, from the web of prints and stacking them so as to form the stack of prints associated with this customer order;        inserting sections of negatives and the stack of prints assigned to the same customer order into an appropriate flexible pocket-type envelope (a wallet);        adding any supplements like promotion coupons, mini-albums, floppy disks, CDs etc, assigned to the customer order, to the pocket-type envelope or wallet as signed to the same customer order;        closing the pocket-type envelope and placing it in the work envelope (assigned to the san customer order;        closing the work envelope and applying a price label which corresponds to tire customer order treated;        sending the work envelope and thus the processed customer order back to the shop from which it was dispatched, for delivery to the customer.        
All above-mentioned processes represent examples of processes on customer orders within the scope of the present invention. The above processes may be performed automatically by processing devices or semi-automatically with the assistance of operators or manually by operators.
A photographic laboratory, in general, serves a wide area with a large number of photo shops and, therefore, must be fitted out for processing (handling) a large number of orders (up to ten thousands various orders a day). This has been made possible only by a high degree of automation in the laboratory itself, with a consistent necessity to standardise the components used (print format, envelopes etc.). A drawback of this standardisation is that individual wishes or information of the customer may not be fulfilled. On the other hand, if a photographic laboratory is designed to fulfil a variety of wishes of a customer, i e. a variety of processing information, the photo graphic laboratory must have a huge number of different processing devices which have to perform the individual orders automatically. Since, however, some individual orders are only rarely desired, the particular processing devices assigned to performing the processes according to those individual wishes or instructions, are only rarely used and therefore not profitable Furthermore, the individual wishes of customers can change due to a change of fashion.